Kids learn by reading to younger kids

Sunday

May 27, 2012 at 5:53 PM

The partnership between the two classes started this year.

By Pressley BairdPressley.Baird@StarNewsOnline.com

Deborah Barber's classroom was cacophonous. Every knee-high table in the South Topsail Elementary teacher's room was piled up with books. Barber's first-grade students grabbed paperbacks from the stacks and opened them up as fellow teacher Linda Donovan's fourth-graders settled in next to them. Fingers flew to pages, and fists propped up chins as the older students began to read to the little ones – and vice versa.The chaos is part of a ritual for the two classes known as book buddies. At the end of almost every Friday, Donovan's fourth-graders walk down the hall to help their first-grade "buddies" with their reading skills.Or, as first-grader Parker Daughtry says of Leah Robinson, her fourth-grade buddy: "When she reads the words, I can get them more better."The partnership between the two classes started this year, Barber and Donovan said. Each had paired up to read with other classes sporadically in the past, but they started working exclusively with each other this year. They try to meet every Friday to let their groups read together for a half-hour before heading into the weekend.It's benefited both groups. Barber's first-graders are more confident."It's nonthreatening for my children when they're reading to another child instead of an adult," she said.Donovan's students see the power of their own influence."It's a leadership role they really want to be in," she said. "It helps them to see how far they've come, too."The bond goes beyond reading. When the reading starts, each pair of buddies is oblivious to anything but the book in front of them.Fourth-grader Adrienne Connors and first-grade buddy Hennrietta Griffin had taken over a corner of a table in the back of the classroom. Hennrietta brought five books from home, and the pair paged through each, taking turns reading aloud.When fourth-graders read to first-graders, "it's mainly things we already know," Adrienne said with a note of authority in her words. Hennrietta, chair scooted close to Adrienne, listened carefully."Yeah," Hennrietta interjected, voice equally authoritative. "And every time I see her when we're going to the bus, we give each other hugs."